Project overview

Waldeck were appointed by the Elliott Group as Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) Engineering Consultant on five new-build primary schools, secured in the DfE PSBP2 Framework. We are pleased to share that four of these schools have now been handed over to the end client with the fifth school having a target completion date of June 2020.

Our solution

For all schools, Waldeck were appointed to provide:

  1.  M&E pre-contract services – This included determining the initial building M&E services loadings and liaising with utilities companies for quotations and advice on upgrade works to suit the new development.
  2. M&E performance design – Our team then carried out initial modelling of the predicted daylight and overheating, based on measured weather data, and advised of various options to maximise daylight, whilst ensuring compliance with the CIBSE TM52 overheating assessment. An M&E performance design was prepared for inclusion with Elliott’s final Contractor’s Proposals, and against which sign off was received by the DfE.
  3. Review of detailed design – Detailed design was then developed by the M&E Contractor and during this stage, Waldeck acted as Technical Assessors to ensure, as the design developed, that the principles of the performance design were adhered to and compliance with the DfE’s brief maintained.
  4. Construction stage technical support – During the construction stage, our team provided off-site support for queries and carried out regular site visits to review for compliance.

The results

This scheme included the relocation of the reception classroom modular building and decant of the existing pupils into temporary accommodation, which was followed by construction of a new 3-storey 2214m2 building.

The new 2FE primary school was built on an existing school site in London. For this particular school, the main issue to overcome was compliance with the TM52 overheating requirements, due to the London location. The overheating assessment was carried out in a co-ordinated manner with the daylight assessment and compliance was achieved using carefully selected glazing. This ensured that the solar heat gains and potential glare was limited whilst maintaining good daylight conditions in the classroom. The existing school site also had a separate Nursery building which was retained and the electrical services were interfaced to the new school building.

After completion, the school was awarded a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating.